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Stalked
A young actress, also a single mother, is murdered and left for dead on a New York City street. Only she wasnt murdered. Somebody tried to kill her, somebody she knew. But who? If only she could remember, before he tried a second time.
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2000
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January 14, 2019
Susannah is a divorced aspiring actress with a teenage daughter in 1980s New York City. The pressures of making a living and supporting a daughter unaided by her ex-husband are pushing Susannah toward abandoning the theater and pursuing a conventional life. However, “Her man’s cap set at a jaunty angle, she went out each day to meet the world”.
She becomes involved with aspiring playwright Herb, who is emotionally disturbed and dependent upon medication to maintain anything resembling balance. In a first step toward having his play produced, Herb rents a public space for a reading that he hopes will generate professional interest. Susannah has been working with him all along– playing the lead character–and has committed to performing in the all-important reading. She is forced to cancel however, in favor of pursuing an acting opportunity that could be a big break for her. Herb, who has been neglecting his medication, becomes enraged and sends Susannah to the hospital with a severe beating. She suffers partial paralysis and memory loss, both of the circumstances of the beating and the identity of her attacker. In addition to recovering physically, she must learn to speak again and hope to regain her memory. Herb, who actually brought her to the hospital after the beating, is watchful and despite his ambivalence, eventually comes to realize that he must kill Susannah to ensure his own safety.
The balance of the plot (will Susannah remember and will Herb silence her before she does?) follows the two main characters, who share a similar problem in that each is trapped inside their own skins. Susannah’s efforts to regain her life include a frustratingly slow process to recover her ability to communicate and regain her memory. Herb plots to finish off Susannah, but his mental instability exacerbated by his inconsistent use of his medication makes him his own worst enemy. He follows Susannah’s agonizingly slow recovery, even lending her therapeutic support, but as he always finds a way to fail in his attempts to silence her.
Rickett manages to maintain suspense throughout and makes a rather unbelievable situation work with her convincing portrayal of two stricken psyches locked in a life and death struggle–a struggle in which one of the adversaries is totally unaware of the other’s identity. The author also uses well drawn secondary characters and situations throughout to add additional layers of tension. A plot device that the reader may expect to resolve the story does not pan out: the author avoids the predictable and clichéd throughout and produces a nail-biter ending.
STALKED was a paperback original and one of three mysteries produced by Rickett, this one twenty years after the first two. THE PROWLER is also an excellent read.
She becomes involved with aspiring playwright Herb, who is emotionally disturbed and dependent upon medication to maintain anything resembling balance. In a first step toward having his play produced, Herb rents a public space for a reading that he hopes will generate professional interest. Susannah has been working with him all along– playing the lead character–and has committed to performing in the all-important reading. She is forced to cancel however, in favor of pursuing an acting opportunity that could be a big break for her. Herb, who has been neglecting his medication, becomes enraged and sends Susannah to the hospital with a severe beating. She suffers partial paralysis and memory loss, both of the circumstances of the beating and the identity of her attacker. In addition to recovering physically, she must learn to speak again and hope to regain her memory. Herb, who actually brought her to the hospital after the beating, is watchful and despite his ambivalence, eventually comes to realize that he must kill Susannah to ensure his own safety.
The balance of the plot (will Susannah remember and will Herb silence her before she does?) follows the two main characters, who share a similar problem in that each is trapped inside their own skins. Susannah’s efforts to regain her life include a frustratingly slow process to recover her ability to communicate and regain her memory. Herb plots to finish off Susannah, but his mental instability exacerbated by his inconsistent use of his medication makes him his own worst enemy. He follows Susannah’s agonizingly slow recovery, even lending her therapeutic support, but as he always finds a way to fail in his attempts to silence her.
Rickett manages to maintain suspense throughout and makes a rather unbelievable situation work with her convincing portrayal of two stricken psyches locked in a life and death struggle–a struggle in which one of the adversaries is totally unaware of the other’s identity. The author also uses well drawn secondary characters and situations throughout to add additional layers of tension. A plot device that the reader may expect to resolve the story does not pan out: the author avoids the predictable and clichéd throughout and produces a nail-biter ending.
STALKED was a paperback original and one of three mysteries produced by Rickett, this one twenty years after the first two. THE PROWLER is also an excellent read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review